Court summons Rahul Gandhi on March 24 for defamatory remarks on Army

Lucknow, Feb 12 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been summoned by a Lucknow court on March 24 in connection with his allegedly defamatory remarks against the Indian Army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma scheduled the hearing for March 24 and said that Rahul Gandhi would have to be present in court.

The complaint was filed by lawyer Vivek Tiwari on behalf of Uday Shankar Srivastava, former director of Border Roads Organisation, who has a rank equivalent to an Army Colonel.

Tiwari claimed that Rahul Gandhi's comments made on December 16, 2022, about a clash between the Indian and Chinese army on December 9, 2022, were derogatory and defamed the Indian military forces.

On February 11, a special court heard another defamation case against the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition over an allegedly objectionable remark made by Gandhi about Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.

The court posted the next hearing for the case on February 24, when the witness would be cross-examined. The court has also ordered the complainant to produce relevant evidence in the case.

Over the past five years, the case has gone through multiple proceedings, but Rahul Gandhi failed to appear in court.

In December 2023, following a warrant, LoP Rahul Gandhi finally appeared in court. In February 2024, the Congress leader complied with the summons and the special magistrate granted him bail.

The Rae Bareli MP has claimed that he is not guilty of the charge and that the case was a part of a political conspiracy against him.

The comment that "Chinese soldiers are beating up Indian Army personnel in Arunachal Pradesh" -- a dig at the government over Chinese action at the Line of Actual Control -- drew sharp criticism from many quarters and led to a massive political row.

Many BJP leaders had declared that Rahul Gandhi was "anti-national", and accused his family of receiving Chinese hospitality and funds in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

It did not deter Rahul Gandhi who continued to target the government over the China issue.

In March 2023, Rahul Gandhi was barred from attending for a while after he was found guilty in a defamation case for a remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his last name. The Gujarat court which was hearing the case, sentenced him to a two-year jail term.

Though the sentence was suspended, the duration was exactly what was needed to bar leaders from Parliament, the Opposition pointed out, calling it a conspiracy against the Congress leader.

Rahul Gandhi later received relief from the Supreme Court, which put his conviction on hold, pointing out that the trial judge had awarded the maximum sentence of two years in the case. If the sentence was a day less, it would not have attracted disqualification, the court had added in its judgment.